Michael Schumacher: 'Only a miracle' can save him'

Tony Paterson

Doctors treating Michael Schumacher and other medical experts have told his family that "only a miracle" can save him, sources have said.

The seven-time Formula One world champion suffered serious brain injuries after hitting a rock during a skiing accident in the French Alpine ski resort of Meribel in late December.

He is being treated in hospital in Grenoble, France, where he has been in an artificially induced coma for a total of69 days.

Sources close to his family say the 45-year-old driver's wife, Corinna, and his brother, Ralf, have been consulting brain specialists throughout Europe and have been told that his chances of recovery are minimal.

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The family is said to be concerned that the French doctors treating Schumacher have little hope that he will recover and now assume that he will remain in a vegetative state for the rest of his life.

Experts point out that most artificial comas last for an average of three weeks. Schumacher's management team has insisted that doctors are gradually reducing drug levels to bring the driver out of his artificial coma and that he is currently in a "wake-up" phase.

In a statement released on Friday, the management team insisted there had been no change. "Michael is still in a wake-up phase, the situation has not altered," spokeswoman Sabine Kehm said.

At the management team's request, the Grenoble hospital treating Schumacher has kept news about his condition to a minimum. However sources close to his family say that the driver's prognosis is bleak. "The family has been told that only a miracle can bring him back now," a senior German journalist reporting on the Schumacher case said. " He is in a bad way but until the family issues a formal statement, we cannot publish anything," he added.

Another source said: "Doctors have given it to them straight. Miracles sometimes happen but there is little hope that he will come out of this."

A fortnight ago, Germany's Focus magazine reported that complications had obliged doctors to halt Schumacher's wake-up process and that the driver had been put back into a coma. However Schumacher's management team denied the report.

Coma experts have stressed that the past week should have been crucial for Schumacher's wake-up process as doctors would have been hoping for a sign that he was gradually becoming aware of his surroundings.

However, last Sunday, the Schumacher family is reported to have spent Corinna Schumacher's 45th birthday gathered around the comatose driver's hospital bed praying in vain for him to acknowledge their presence.

Doctors say that the greatest risk facing the driver while he remains in a coma and unable to swallow properly is the possibility that he will contract pneumonia as a result of his lungs being filled with fluid.

Should Schumacher manage to emerge from his coma, there appears to be little likelihood that he would be able to live a normal, active life.

Gary Hartstein, a former Formula One doctor, told the German media last week: "The majority of patients who come out of a coma alive after this amount of time suffer severe disabilities."